


The Devil Makes Us Sin

by flashrevolver



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: (mostly compliant), Blackwatch, Canon Compliant, M/M, Mutual Pining, Rating will change, Recreational Drug Use, implied gerard/ana, tags will change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:27:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23450944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashrevolver/pseuds/flashrevolver
Summary: “Is this why I got set up in such a fancy room?”Agent Lacroix broke into a smile.“You’re a big dog, now, Jesse McCree,” he said loudly. “You get to eat at the dinner table with us.”(Gabe promotes Jesse to special ops and everything changes very quickly.)
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Reaper | Gabriel Reyes
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	The Devil Makes Us Sin

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. It's been a while.
> 
> Edgy title from Paradise Circus by Massive Attack.
> 
> Take the adherence to canon with a grain of salt, but this is set about a year after Jesse was recruited, several years after Blackwatch was formed. This might seem a little love triangle-y but I promise mcreyes is going to be the sole relationship focus despite implied past r76. Also Gerard isn't cheating on Amelie they're not together yet.
> 
> My plan for this fic is a lot of angst, a little slow burn, a decent amount of porn, and watching Gabe and Jesse weather the storm of the fall of Blackwatch together.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy.

Jesse had no idea what to expect out of this conference. He’d been personally invited by Commander Reyes, told there was a panel he needed to attend. Something about new safety standards for weapons training. He couldn’t complain. He knew a promotion to a training lead would come with a few new responsibilities. It also came with a pay raise.

The hotel where the conference was being held was massive. When the transport car from the airport dropped them off, Jesse was stunned. The lobby had looming ceilings lined with windows, letting sunlight beam down on a sculpted fountain in the center. Sleek, white couches and glass tables formed sitting areas next to what looked like a cafe,  _ inside _ the hotel. The crowds of people pooling around looked rich and intelligent and stressed, and Jesse quickly felt out of place. 

Most of his superiors had arrived the day before, leaving him and the rest of the training team arriving together.

An omnic dressed in a crisp grey suit approached him not a second after they walked in the door.

“Mr. McCree?” they asked.

“That’s me,” he replied.

“Welcome to the Unity Comfort. My name is Zina, and I’ll be providing personal assistance throughout your stay. Your room cards,” they stated, placing a stack of thin cards in his hand. “Your card is on top, room 12, and the rest of your party is in rooms 614 through 620. Someone will be around shortly to help with their bags.”

Jesse nodded, taking the cards with a furrowed brow. He wasn’t sure why he’d be in a different block than the rest of his team. He wasn’t sure why he was the apparent leader of this party, either. He thanked the omnic, and a few others in that same grey uniform filed in from a door behind the counter. Jesse handed room cards out, telling his team to work it out amongst themselves if they wanted to switch rooms. Two of the cheery omnic attendants started taking bags from his team and placing them on luggage carts, and Zina reached to take his suitcase.

“Thank you, but I’ve got it,” he said, and the lights on Zina’s faceplate lit up cheerily.

“I’ll show you to your room, then,” they said, and started toward the elevator. Jesse followed, his suitcase ticking against the seams in the marble floor. The elevator took them to the top floor slowly, the glass tube of the elevator shaft giving them a nice view of the lobby on their way up.

They walked down a long, wide hallway before stopping in front of room 12.

“If you need anything, Mr. McCree, I’m a phone call away. My extension is printed in your hospitality packet.”

“Thank you very much,” Jesse said, removing his hat and reaching his hand out. Zina took it, seeming slightly puzzled, and they shook amicably. He pulled his wallet out and thumbed out a couple bills, but Zina put their hands up.

“My gratuity is included in the price of your stay,” they said very insistently. “But I appreciate it very much, sir. Enjoy your stay.”

Before Jesse could even get his wallet put away, they were off down the hall.

Jesse turned to face his room and pulled the card out, waving it over the small screen above the door handle. It lit up blue with the word “Welcome” flashing in a couple different languages. Jesse squinted to read the text that appeared on the screen.

“Please scan card,” he mouthed along, and held his card over the screen. Nothing happened. He bent down to look for a scanner elsewhere on the handle, putting the card down on anything he thought could be the scanner.

“Please place your card on the scanner,” the tiny machine said in a smooth, mechanical voice, and Jesse jumped back.

“Didn’t know you could talk,” he said quietly.

The door to the room across the hallway clicked open behind him, and Jesse turned around to see Commander Reyes standing in the doorway.

“Thought I heard you out there,” he said. “Glad you made it okay.”

“This damn door’s talking to me,” Jesse joked. “What am I doing wrong?”

“Please place your card on the scanner,” the door said again, and Reyes stepped out into the hallway. He got right next to Jesse and took his card, holding it against the screen for a couple seconds. The screen turned white and Jesse heard the lock mechanism whir behind the handle.

Jesse laughed sheepishly and opened the handle. 

“Guess it doesn’t like me,” he said as Reyes handed his card back to him.

“I don’t blame it,” Reyes said, and it took a few seconds for it to sink in that it was a joke. He didn’t realize Reyes made those. Jesse laughed belatedly, looking up in time to catch the end of a smirk on Reyes’s face.

“Get comfortable. Come to the conference room at the end of the hall at 5. It’ll be quick.”

He retreated back to his room before Jesse could reply.

Jesse pulled his suitcase in through the door and stopped in his tracks when he saw the room. 

There were windows lining the opposite wall, looking out over the city and, further out, the ocean. The sun was just starting to dip in the sky and dye the horizon a cool orange. To Jesse’s right was a sunken living area, light colored leather couches posed around a large glass TV. Past that looked like a full kitchen. To his left was an arching door to the bedroom, and he walked in slowly, taking in the wealthy-looking color palette, the perfectly clean white walls.

_ Why am I in this room? _ If the commander himself hadn’t just helped him in, he would’ve thought it was a mistake.  _ Do all the rooms look like this?  _ He checked his phone and did a double take as he realized it was 4:30. Time zones.

He took a brief shower in the mind-boggling bathroom. There was a screen inside the shower that let him control the temperature, water pressure, and lights.

By the time he got into clean, comfortable clothes, it was almost 5, so he headed down the hall to the conference room. He wasn’t the first to arrive. Commander Reyes was already sitting at the round table, and Jack Morrison was sitting next to him, as well as a couple people he hadn’t met, but knew by name because of their status within Overwatch.

“Close the door behind you, McCree,” Reyes said, and Jesse did so. “This is Captain Ana Amari and Agent Gérard Lacroix.”

Jesse approached and each of them stood to shake his hand. He suddenly realized they were all neatly done-up in business attire, and he was in sweat pants.

“Jesse McCree,” he said, and Captain Amari smiled.

“We know who you are, Jesse,” she said. “Please have a seat.”

Jesse sat down across from Reyes. He could feel a strange type of anxiety building inside him. The same type of anxiety he used to have a year ago when he was just recruited. Like he was in trouble. Like this was all about to be pulled out from under him.

“Is something wrong?” Jesse blurted out.

“Yes,” Agent Lacroix stated gravely, looking at him intensely. Jesse shrank back a little, his eyes darting between Lacroix’s face and his commander’s. “You are not being promoted to training lead.”

Jesse felt his heart sink, and then Amari and Reyes both shot Lacroix an exasperated look.

“You’re not being promoted to training lead because we want to offer you a position on the Special Operations team,” Morrison said. Agent Lacroix started laughing.

“I got him,” he said, and Jesse looked over each of their faces, still processing the situation.

“Special Operations?” he asked.

“Up until now the missions you’ve taken on have been standard operations. You’ve been an essential recruit, and according to Commander Reyes, you’ve outshone your teammates and would make an excellent addition to the Special Operations team,” Jack said, sounding like he was reading from a script. He always sounded that way, at least the few times Jesse had spoken with him. “The highly classified operations that Blackwatch performs go much deeper than the more surface-level operations you’re used to.”

“What kind of classified operations?” Jesse asked, glancing over at Reyes who was looking at Morrison.

“That’s all going to be explained to you,” Captain Amari said. “I’ll be helping to integrate you into the position along with Commander Reyes and Agent Lacroix, if you accept.”

Jesse sat quietly for a moment, and all eyes fell on him.

“How could I say no with y’all lookin’ at me like that,” he joked, giving a nervous grin. “Is this why I got set up in such a fancy room?”

Agent Lacroix broke into a smile.

“You’re a big dog, now, Jesse McCree,” he said loudly. “You get to eat at the dinner table with us.”

Jesse smiled, finally, the anxiety from before falling off his shoulders.

“Alright, then,” Reyes said, standing up. “I’m glad we could keep this short. We can meet back here at seven tomorrow morning to hash out the details. McCree, I’ll email you an updated meeting schedule in the morning.”

“I think we should celebrate,” Lacroix said as Morrison and Amari stood up. “I’ll order a round of drinks for us up to the balcony.”

“It never takes you long to start looking for reasons to drink,” Amari said, but her voice wasn’t scolding. It was warm and teasing. “You know this isn’t a vacation.”

“And yet I’ll see you there,” Lacroix said, and winked up at her. “Jack, Gabriel, Jesse. You three as well.”

Jesse looked around the room before nodding, eyebrows raised up to his hair. Morrison looked down at Jesse with an entirely undecipherable expression and then simply said “okay”.

Reyes said nothing, just grunted and left the room.

“He gets rude when he’s tired,” Amari said, and Jesse and Lacroix finally stood up. 

As they all exited, Lacroix grabbed Jesse by the arm and held him back. He stopped and turned, and Lacroix waited until the rest of them were well gone before speaking.

“Everyone is excited to have you, even if they don’t show it” he said. “Reyes has been trying to push this promotion through for months. There was a lot of red tape because of… Well, your past. But I think you’re going to fit in with us just fine.”

Jesse felt his chest swell a little at the words. 

“Feels like it came out of nowhere,” he admitted, letting his shoulders fall a bit. There was something pleasantly disarming about Lacroix. His casual demeanor made Jesse feel a little less out of his depth. “I wasn’t a hundred percent sure Commander Reyes could pick me out of a crowd.”

“He has a soft spot for you,” Lacroix said furtively, tilting his head down until his dark eyes were shadowed. “You’ll see it.”

Jesse scratched his chin, averting his eyes, and Lacroix clapped him on the shoulder.

“I’m serious about a celebration,” he said. “This isn’t a vacation, but that doesn’t mean we don’t treat it like one anyway. Look at this place. We’re all just human. The balcony is at the other end of this floor. Wear something nicer.”

With that, the man departed toward his room, and Jesse started toward his own.

A hundred thoughts were vying for Jesse’s attention, but despite them he felt like he was walking on a cloud. This was wilder than his wildest dreams. He hadn’t thought about his future recently. In a long time, actually. When he was captured and recruited it had taken him months to realize he wasn’t just a glorified prisoner. Longer than that to realize he sort of enjoyed the routine of it. The challenge of it. He mostly kept his head down, did as he was told, went to sleep, and woke up to do it again in the morning. Apparently he was better at that than he’d realized.

There was no question that he was a talented marksman, but there were a lot of talented marksmen on his team. Jesse couldn’t help wondering what qualities Reyes could have possibly seen in him that led to this.

When he got back to his room, it took him a couple tries to get the door open, but at least this time nobody was watching.

—

When he arrived on the balcony, having changed into black jeans and a dark button-up, with his  _ nice _ boots and hat on, he was surprised to see it was much bigger than he expected. There was a full bar being run by an omnic and a few tables spread out. The sunset was almost over, the sky darkening, but the clouds were still carrying streaks of sunlight. 

Lacroix spotted him quickly and waved him over to the bar. He was wearing a tacky open button-up, but making it look ironic and charming. It was a far stretch from the suit he was wearing earlier. Captain Amari was standing right next to him, her slighter form clad in a comfortable sun dress.

“Not a vacation, huh?” Jesse asked, and Amari took a coy sip of her drink.

“Can I get you something, sir?” the omnic at the bar asked. Jesse ordered a rum and coke, and Lacroix made it two.

“Such a sophisticated choice,” he said, taking the drink as soon as it was sat down on the counter and holding it out toward Jesse. “Makes you feel twenty times cooler just holding it.”

Jesse took his own drink and knocked it against Lacroix’s, then took a slow sip, glancing around at everyone on the balcony.

“I need to introduce you to a few people,” Lacroix said, putting a hand on his arm and leading him toward a group of people. This group of people included Commander Morrison, dressed in a long-sleeve button-up tucked into light-wash jeans. 

“Congratulations, McCree,” Morrison said, tipping the neck of his bottle toward him.

“Thank you, sir,” he responded earnestly.

“Jesse,” Lacroix said. “This is Mina Liao, Jason Camposano, and Gabrielle Adawe.”

Jesse had heard all of these names before, and felt almost embarrassingly starstruck as he put faces to their names.

“Jesse McCree,” he said, shaking each of their hands.

He was introduced to several other people, most of them members of Overwatch or the UN that he likely wouldn’t be working with. People who made him feel like he was three inches tall. There was palpable relief when they made it back to the bar. Jesse tried not to be disappointed that he hadn’t seen Reyes around yet.

“We’re going to work on your people skills,” Lacroix said, and Jesse put a hand to his chest, raising his eyebrows. “No offense. You can be very charming, I can tell. Part of your job is going to be impressing people like that.”

He closed one eye and pointed at the rest of the room, like he was aiming through a scope.

“You don’t feel like you fit in, and it shows. If you’re not careful, your conversation partners will pick up on that and begin to agree with you.”

Jesse could tell that Lacroix was a little drunk, and it made him take a drink. 

“What exactly is it that you do, Agent Lacroix?” he asked, sitting on one of the bar stools. Captain Amari wandered back to Lacroix’s side from the end of the bar.

“I am a people person,” he said, putting a hand on Amari’s shoulder for a brief second before removing it and hanging it limply at his side. There was a bit of a blush dusting the tops of his cheeks. “I read people and I figure them out and I fuck with their heads. I make them think we are friends or lovers and I draw out of them confidential information.”

“So you’re an undercover guy?”

“The best in the world,” Lacroix asserted. “Master of charisma. Master of disguise.”

“So humble, too, Gérard,” Amari deadpanned, and Lacroix smiled and looked down at her with stars in his eyes.

It was getting increasingly strange for Jesse to see these people in this new light. A day ago he had only heard their names—over, and over, and over again—and now he was seeing them drunk in their civvies on a balcony in Cape Town. Once he got through his drink and ordered another one, he was feeling pleasantly warm himself. 

“Tell me something boring about yourself, Jesse,” Lacroix said, leaning back against the bar to Jesse’s left and looking comfortably out at the balcony.

“Something boring?” Jesse asked.

“The most boring fact you can think of.”

“Alright,” Jesse said. He glanced around, trying to jog his thoughts, and saw the beach in the distance past the glass railing. “I’ve never been to a beach.”

Lacroix raised his eyebrows and put a hand on his hip.

“Never?”

“I went to a pretty big lake once.”

“That can be easily rectified,” Amari said. “We usually go to the beach as a group on the last day of the conference.”

Jesse didn’t care one way or the other, really. He didn’t like swimming.

“Well, what about you? Boring fact?” he asked.

“I shampoo my mustache,” Lacroix said quickly.

“I am left handed,” Amari said after a second.

Jesse nodded mildly.

“Those facts aren’t interesting in the slightest,” he confirmed with a grin that was matched by both the others.

“Gabriel,” Lacroix said suddenly, eyes focused over Jesse’s shoulder. Jesse turned to look, and saw Commander Reyes standing near the door. He was wearing the same thing Jesse had seen him in countless times during training. Black cargo pants, black hoodie, black beanie. Jesse wasn’t sure why he expected anything different.

The commander approached them, his hands in his pockets, and sat next to Jesse at the bar, ordering a margarita from the bartender before uttering any greetings.

“Wondered if you were going to show up at all, big man,” Lacroix said, putting his hands on Reyes’s shoulders and kneading them tenderly. Jesse genuinely expected Reyes to hit him. He’d never seen someone touch Reyes so casually. Instead, the commander dropped his head for a moment and let Lacroix work a little bit of stress out of his shoulders.

“I was on a voice call with Private Beaufort at the base,” he said, gently nudging Lacroix’s hands away.

“Is something wrong?” Amari asked, and Reyes rolled his eyes.

“There’s always something wrong with that man,” Reyes said, and Jesse laughed. Reyes glanced sideways at him like he had barely noticed he was there at all.

“Glad I’m not the only one who’s noticed,” Jesse said, and Reyes sighed.

“Enough talk about work,” Lacroix said. “We will talk about work for hours tomorrow. Jesse and I don’t need to know half the things you desk jockeys would discuss anyway.”

Reyes’s eyes opened wider and he turned around in his seat to look at Lacroix. 

“Desk jockey?” he asked, squinting. He had a look on his face that would make Jesse piss himself, but Lacroix gets closer and grins meanly.

“When’s the last time you were in the field, Commander? For me it was, um, oh, the day before yesterday, actually.”

“You want to see who would win in hand-to-hand right now?”

“What, so that you can flex those genetically modified arms?”

Inexplicably, Reyes smiled. A tired, but real looking smile.

It was fascinating to Jesse how easily Lacroix was able to pull Reyes out of his own head and get him to relax.

Lacroix and Amari stood and chatted with Reyes for a little while, and Jesse mostly listened unless he was addressed. The conversation went around in circles a couple times, from Lacroix rambling energetically, to Amari putting a hand on his arm to keep him from getting too rowdy, and Reyes occasionally making a sly remark and laughing. Laughing was a strong term. It was more of a variety of sharp exhales.

At a certain point, Amari’s hand touched Lacroix’s arm and never left, and at a further point she left to use the restroom and he departed half a minute after. 

“They’ve never been subtle,” Reyes said once Lacroix was out of earshot, and Jesse realized it was the first time that night that Reyes had spoken directly to him. He chuckled, a little nervous to be left alone with his commander. It made him feel silly. They were both quiet for a few seconds after that.

“Agent Lacroix told me about you pushing for the promotion,” Jesse said, and Reyes looked over at him, meeting his eyes. “Thank you.”

“I know it was sudden,” Reyes said. “I couldn’t say anything to you until I got approval.”

He glances away, eyes flicking over Jesse’s shoulder for a moment, looking at something behind him. Looking towards Jack Morrison.

“You know, you didn’t exactly give me any hints, either,” he said. “You never told me I, what,  _ outshone my teammates?” _

“I don’t tell you things like that because you get a big head,” Reyes said. “Doesn’t mean they aren’t true.”

“I didn’t think you even paid attention to my stats, or anyone else’s for that matter.”

“What exactly is it you think I do all day?”

“I always picture you gunning down omnics, like in the old Strike Team posters,” Jesse said with a grin. That made Reyes laugh. Not just sharply exhale, but laugh. It was quiet, but it made Jesse’s heart beat a little faster.

“I had repressed that memory,” Reyes said. “So, fuck you.”

Jesse laughed quietly and took another drink. When he looked back over at his commander, he was looking over at Morrison again. Morrison glanced over, and Reyes looked back at Jesse, smiling and sipping at his margarita.

“You think they’d let me smoke up here?” Jesse asked after a moment, and jumped when the bartender responded.

“This is a non-smoking area. There are designated smoking areas on the first floor and on the private balcony of each VIP room.”

Jesse thanked the omnic, and Reyes stood up, looking down at Jesse expectantly.

“Huh?” Jesse asked.

“We can go to my room,” he said, glancing up at Morrison one last time before turning on his heel and walking back toward the entrance. Jesse stood up hesitantly, leaving his drink on the bar and following Reyes into the building.

“You smoke?” Jesse asked as they walked down the hallway. Reyes shrugged.

“Sometimes.”

He unlocked the door to room 13, just across from Jesse’s, and they entered.

Jesse felt strange. His hands were shaking a little, and would be lying if he said he didn’t know why. He  _ liked _ Reyes. Inexplicably and against his better judgement, he really liked him. He was a mystery to Jesse, an ancient, dusty geode that Jesse had been trying and failing to crack for an entire year now. Jesse was good at reading people, but Reyes was far better at concealing himself. Now, though, Jesse was starting to see a crack in his demeanor. The idea of prodding at it was terrifying, because if Reyes knew how Jesse really felt about him, this could all go horribly wrong. 

He yearned for the closeness that Lacroix and Amari seemed to have with him. A deep, but understated, intimacy. It came from years, and years, and years of working together, and Jesse knew that, but he couldn’t fight the little green-eyed monster inside him. And he had a chance, now, to show Reyes they could be friends. A chance for Reyes to let him in. Maybe he was overthinking it.

The room was still immaculately clean aside from one black t-shirt laying on the floor. It smelled nice, too, like Reyes had just showered. Jesse shook that thought away. 

Once they were out on the small balcony, Jesse pulled out his pack of cigarettes and lit one. He looked over to offer Reyes one, but the man was lighting a joint instead.

“Jesus, Reyes,” Jesse said, smiling and leaning against the railing. 

“Please call me Gabe,” he said, and Jesse felt his cheeks darken, glad the commander likely couldn’t see it. “When we’re not working, just call me Gabe. Or Gabriel.”

“Alright, then, Gabe,” Jesse said, trying it out on his tongue. “Gabriel? Naw, Gabe. You know how rude it would be not to share that?”

Gabe passed the joint over wordlessly, leaning right next to Jesse on the railing. Jesse traded his cigarette for it and they each took a couple puffs before passing them back. The sky was fully dark, now, and the city below them was a mess of yellow windows, tail-lights, glowing advertisements, storefronts casting shadows of city-goers against the sidewalks. 

Jesse waited for Gabe to say something, but he didn’t, and they were quiet for a couple minutes, passing the joint and cigarette back and forth occasionally. It was a comfortable silence. Jesse was hardly ever comfortable in silence. He tried his best not to think about Gabe’s lips every time he raised the joint to his mouth, and mostly succeeded, but it still made his chest hot.

“I have to be honest about something,” Gabe finally said.

“About what?”

“I’m taking a really big risk on you. I put a lot on the line for this.”

Jesse’s heart sank a little, and he kept his eyes trained on one car, far below them, weaving through traffic.

“ _ Why?” _ he asked with conviction. “I mean, why me?”

“Why you, indeed,” Gabe said plainly. “That’s the question I’ve been asked for months.”

Jesse swapped Gabe for the joint and took a couple deep hits. He could feel that fuzzy sensation starting to collect in his skull, the familiar weight settling in his fingers and toes and making the slight breeze blowing across the balcony feel amplified, like he would float away if he forgot to keep standing still.

“And what’s the answer?” Jesse asked. “Because I know there’s people who are better than me. I usually rank in the top five in sims, but Beaufort is number one every week. Kelly is strong, too.”

“Beaufort and Kelly are meatheads,” Gabe said, rolling his eyes. “They’re bootlicking jocks.”

Jesse raised an eyebrow.

“There’s just something you gotta have to join Special Ops,” Gabe said. “A certain degree of… Competency. Authenticity. You have it.”

Jesse sat on that for a moment, weighing in it his mind.

“Like, it’s not about the numbers,” Gabe continued before Jesse could respond. “Which, yours are fucking amazing, by the way. Fuck Beaufort and Kelly. It’s a video game to them. They press all the right buttons and they get the high scores, but they could never do the operations we’re getting into. You’ve got real world experience, you understand things they could never… Never understand.”

Jesse opened his mouth to ask a question, but Gabe was already talking again.

“Jack doesn’t understand what it is I’m being asked to do. He can’t understand, it’s actually, literally, above his pay grade. He doesn’t get that I have to operate with a lot of nuance. It’s his job to make the right decisions. It’s my job to make the  _ hard _ decisions. You—,” he cuts himself off, looking down at Jesse for a moment and sighing. “You were an easy decision, but a very, very hard sell.”

“So… Morrison doesn’t think I was the right decision.”

“No.”

“Morrison thinks Beaufort was the right decision.”

“Fuck Beaufort,” Gabe mumbled. “Yes.”

“Well,” Jesse said. “I guess I still don’t quite understand, but thank you. Really, thank you.”

“I didn’t know what I was going to do if you’d said no.”

“You thought I might say no?” Jesse asked.

“I can never, ever guess what you’re going to say,” Gabe said quietly. Jesse smiled.

“Well, you were right,” he said.

“About what?” Gabe asked, glancing back toward Jesse and catching his eye.

“I am getting a big head,” Jesse said, and dissolved into laughter. “You have  _ never  _ said anything this nice to me before.”

Gabe rolled his eyes, but there was a smile playing at the corners of his lips that Jesse couldn’t miss.

“I’ve got a pretty high bar to clear, then, huh?” Jesse said. “Gotta show Morrison you know what you’re doing.”

“I do know what I’m doing,” Gabe said. “Besides, it’s done now. The dog barks, but the caravan moves on. He’ll see.”

Jesse felt a swell of something that was quickly quelled by the THC in his system. He put his cigarette out and took one more hit off of Gabe’s joint before that was put out, too, and they were just standing, watching the cars in that comfortable silence again.

“Jesse,” Gabe said, clipped and quiet, and Jesse looked over. “Nothing. We should get back.”

“Oh,” Jesse said. “Yeah, we should.”

He pushed himself up off the railing, and Gabe just  _ watched  _ him for a moment. He locked his eyes on Jesse’s and stared, unreadable, unmoving, for what must have been ten seconds. Jesse held his gaze easily, but felt so  _ seen _ by him in those few seconds that his stomach twisted itself into a knot.

Then, Gabe stood up and turned around, leading Jesse back through his hotel room. They walked back out to the bar and Jesse felt eyes turn towards them as they entered. Lacroix and Amari were still missing, but Gabe led them to a table with a few other Blackwatch agents, and they sat down at the two empty seats, separate from one another.

Jesse got a round of congratulations and did a few shots, his head swimming as he tried to distract himself from Reyes. From Gabe. Eventually people started filtering back to their rooms, and so did Gabe, and so did Morrison and everyone from the UN, and so did Jesse. He fumbled drunkenly with his phone to set an alarm for 6 AM, and fell asleep mercifully without a thought in his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments are always mega appreciated. I'm in a pretty good groove, so I expect to post the second chapter within a week or so. Let me know if I missed any grammar or spelling mistakes.


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